Apple introduces faster MacBook Pros and Mac minis

APPLE rolled out its first new products of 2023 on Tuesday (Jan 17), offering faster versions of its high-end MacBook Pro laptops and the Mac mini desktop.

The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros look the same as the prior models – which launched at the end of 2021 – but add more powerful M2 Pro and M2 Max chips to replace the M1 Pro and M1 Max processors. The new notebooks mark Apple’s first expansion of the M2 chip, which debuted in the MacBook Air and a low-end MacBook Pro last year.

The new Macs bolster a product line that brought in US$40.2 billion last year, accounting for more than 10% of the tech giant’s revenue. The company also plans to bring a variation of the M2 chip to its high-end Mac Pro desktop computer later this year. And Apple is working on new versions of the MacBook Air, including a larger model with a 15-inch screen. 

The chips in the latest models offer modest performance gains and continue Apple’s shift away from using Intel Corp processors inside its Mac computers. The M2 Pro will now sport as many as 12 main processing cores – an indicator of performance – up from a maximum of 10 cores. The graphics capabilities will now reach up to 19 cores, up from a prior high of 16. The M2 Max doubles performance for graphics, climbing to as many as 38 cores from a prior maximum of 32 cores. 

The laptops also get a memory boost, to a maximum of 96 gigabytes on the 16-inch model and 64 gigabytes on the 14-inch version. That’s up from a prior limit of 32 gigabytes on both. Storage continues to top out at 8 terabytes. Battery life has been slightly increased, going to 18 hours from 17 hours on the 14-inch model and up to 22 hours from 21 hours on the 16-inch variation. 

Apple also said that the new MacBook Pros gaine WiFi 6E, which can offer faster wireless performance in some circumstances, in addition to a more powerful HDMI port for driving more advanced external displays. 

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The Mac minis also look the same as the prior model and arrive more than two years after the last update to the machine. The Mac mini adds the same M2 chip as the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, while the M2 Pro version includes the same chip as in the new high-end MacBook Pro. BLOOMBERG